Water composition contest winners

Posted by: Meri Kytö
Posted date:
September 19, 2012 |
2 Comments

EAH Water Soundscape Composition Contest encouraged composers and sound artists to share their sonic knowledge of cultures and contexts of water and imagine acoustic heritage in Europe invoking different listenings of soundscapes. From the 52 works from 19 countries around the world submitted to the contest the jury decided on the winning pieces on September 18th.

The winner of the contest is Alejendro Montes de Oca with the work “Underwater soundscape II (Ruissalo)”, a balanced combination of acoustic and hydrophone recordings and processed sounds creating a strong sense of place. The second prize goes to Jukka Lappalainen and his work “Processed Water”, a water treatment story, while linear in construction, still very clear and informative. The third prize was awarded to “Badock’s Wood II – The River Trym” by Jono Gilmurray, an inventive work in water sound processing combining water sounds to vocals.

Andra McCartney, the head of the jury, comments the decision:

As criteria for the soundscape works, the idea for European Acoustic Heritage was important, and how this might be heard in a soundscape work through a defined sense of place, a focus on the sound environment of Europe and its heritage, and a feeling of really listening and paying attention to water. A defined sense of place indicates a clear relationship between the sound work and its overall environmental context in European culture, one that does not rely on the written description to be understood and appreciated. Works that show a sense of really listening and paying attention to water in context will respond to how water interacts in the environment, how it gathers and moves, the various sonic articulations of water, and how it is affected by other environmental characteristics.

Technical and compositional quality in the works were also considered, whether the work has a clear form and high sound quality with a sense of sonic movement and development. The jury came from many different backgrounds in sound studies and practice, which gave the jury deliberations a depth and breadth of sonic knowledge and challenged us all to think fruitfully about the ideas of other disciplines and approaches.

The audience vote winner is Jono Gilmurrays’s “Badock’s wood – The River Trym” that got more than half of all the 368 individual votes cast. One voter commented on the specificity of the piece: “A personal connection with the geographical area means that I can particularly appreciate how Gilmurray has evoked the sense of being in that area, it’s history and “presence”. My vote may therefore seem partisan, however I believe it also made the composition task harder as the composer had to communicate in sound a connection with my appreciation of an area I know well. He succeeded in this endeavour.”

EAH Water Soundscape Composition Contest invited composers and sound artists to submit soundscape compositions up to a maximum of 10 minutes to be included in the touring European Acoustic Heritage exhibition and accompanying multimedia book. Entries were open to both professional and amateur composers/sound artists. The organizers, positively taken by the diversity of styles and variety of ways in which the works handled the theme of water, want to thank all participants in making the contest possible.

The contest was organized as a part of European Acoustic Heritage project. The project is aimed at discovering and enhancing the soundscapes in Europe, the different soundings and listenings that make up the real and imaginary world and the personality of places and environments contributing to sonic cultural heritage. Ten compositions were chosen out of the 52 submitted works by the preliminary jury for the final round. The Final Jury consisted of soundwalk artist and researcher Andra McCartney (head of the Final Jury), sound artist and researcher Simo Alitalo, composer, performer and sound artist Petri Kuljuntausta, acoustician and researcher Nicolas Remy and ethnomusicologist Jürgen Schöpf. The winning three and the winner of the audience vote will be installed and played at the EAH travelling exhibition starting from Galleria Nottbeck in Tampere, Finland and proceeding to France, Belgium and finally Spain during 2012-2013.

Includes wider and closer perspectives creating a strong sense of place. Many different movements and textures of water and boat motors. Clear relationships are heard between several audible cultures of shipping (recreational and commercial diesel, rowboat and sailboat) and water. Subtle integration of recordings with processing.

A balanced combination of acoustic and hydrophone recordings and processed sounds. Nostalgic sound if you have ever laid on a bottom of a roving boat and drifted.

Well constructed spaces, excellent quality, no hurry, relaxed feel at start, gives surprises, professional hand-work, handles the given theme nicely.

A very nice piece that was risky because it’s is not so easy to find any musicality in the all the sonic expressions of water that the author had gathered. It was a bet but it works properly and the piece keeps auditor’s attention until the end.

The water treatment story, while linear in construction, is very clear and informative. Water recordings are strikingly clear, with a wide range of textures and motion. The ending is abrupt. The machine sounds are always closeup and we never hear the context. Where is this processing plant and how were the recordings made, where did they come from? The composer gives no information about this.

3rd prize

Badock’s wood – The River Trym

Inventive job in water sound processing, the composer combines the water sounds to vocals nicely, the vocalisation and water works together (not just singing over water effects), water drops transformed to “Indonesian” instruments, becomes music piece (almost bluesy), never heard this kind of “water music”, that is good!

A very nice piece that oscillates between the sonic expression of water in the air and the possible sonic expression of water under the water… as if our ears were oscillating in the air and under the water catching all the pitches of the liquidity.

Beautiful water recordings and direct, evident relationship between processing and field recording, with playful and evocative shifts back and forth and subtle melodies.

Sits interestingly on the fence between acoustic & electronic, use of voices is a bold though slightly slightly disturbing move, maybe too overwhelming in such a short piece.